


I - The Forest

by animarune



Series: a voice of few words is still a voice to be heard [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Gen, Neurodivergent Link, Selectively Mute Link, my horticultural nerdism, my music nerdism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-22 12:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13764189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animarune/pseuds/animarune
Summary: Link's nightmares trouble him. Navi calls Link to action, and a hunt for Rupees and a sword ensue. The Great Deku Tree bids Link to fight a curse. Circumstances force Link to say goodbye.This is Link's time in The Forest.Part one of a series exploring the world of Hyrule in Ocarina of Time, featuring horticultural factoids, musings on the background music of the game, and a neurodivergent Link!





	1. I.a. - The Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Thy slumber these past moons must have been restless, and full of nightmares... As the servants of evil gain strength, a vile climate pervades the land and causes nightmares to those sensitive to it... Verily, thou hast felt it..."_
> 
> Link struggles to calm down after another nightmare, this one yet more vivid than even the last, and heads out to visit Saria in the hopes that she'll be able to help.
> 
> "The sight of her eases an ache in Link’s chest; not even the envious presence of her fairy can diminish the calm he feels around Saria."

The cool predawn breeze is chilly on Link’s sweat-damp skin. The crickets are quiet this early in the spring, but some of the forest sprites are beginning to wake. Their dim glow casts dancing shadows on the ceiling through the window, and Link can just make out their whispery voices if he concentrates.

He doesn’t. He can't. The heavy staccato in his chest is slowly settling down to its regular syncopation, but there’s a scream echoing in his ears. Lightning still flashes behind his eyes. Have the nightmares been getting worse? He replaces the lightning for stars—rubs the heels of his palms into his eyes until they ache. His knees make for lousy hugs, but they’re still something solid to cling to. Then there’s a rumbling in his throat, a sensation and sound he’s become sadly familiar with: a complaint, a sort of whining hum, almost a sob but without the tears.

These nightmares are a real pain. They keep happening, and they _have_ been getting worse. They keep getting more vivid, more detailed, more _real_ every time. Is he sick? He doesn’t feel sick. He should tell Saria, but would she tease him? No, Saria isn't like Mido; she's not even like the rest of the Kokiri. His stomach twists at the idea anyway, imagination running with it: Saria laughing in his face; Saria telling him to get lost; Saria asking if he ate one of the pointy brown mushroom caps from the Lost Woods.

He’s halfway across the room before he really thinks about it, feet shoved in his boots and hat jerked on his head. One day, he’s going to jump from his balcony to the hill next to his house, but for now, Link slides down the ladder and climbs the slope to Saria’s house the sensible way.

She’s not there when he peaks in, which can only mean she’s gone to the meadow. The little sprites light the world just enough to see, just enough to reveal what the moon can’t reach through the canopy. Although, Link thinks he could walk this path blindfolded.

The ivies groan under his feet as he scales the wall up to the Lost Woods. The Skull Kids are out of sight, and he wonders again whether they need to sleep. It’s almost tempting to let the Foxfire glowing in the decaying tree portals distract him—they’re the same colour as the sprites, and bright enough that Link can run without fear of crashing into anything. Saria’s song echoes always in these woods, as if the flora itself loves her playing well enough to play the tune back for all to hear.

The notes do well to lift Link’s mood. By the time he’s sneaked passed the snoozing Mad Scrubs and into the wide glade before the ruins, Link feels peaceful enough that, if he wanted, he could turn right around and go home to sleep.

Saria sits on the stump beneath the broken stairs, as always. The sight of her eases an ache in Link’s chest; not even the envious presence of her fairy can diminish the calm he feels around Saria. As Link nears, she continues playing lead melody to the forest’s orchestral accompaniment, only pausing long enough to gesture that he should sit with her. He does so, settling on the stump to press his back against hers. A moment of careful listening, picking out harmonies, and then Link’s voice rises in a hum to dance with those of the forest. He feels Saria bounce excitedly a little against his back. The cheery notes of her ocarina spin to pull him into a flighty duet.

They’re both going to be _so tired_ in a few hours when the dawn finally breaks, but Link has a feeling Saria cares as little as he does. The weight of nightmares seems unimportant in the soft light of forest sprites. The loneliness of being without a fairy seems almost silly in the happy warmth of friendship.

He hopes they stay friends like this forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ["Pointy brown mushroom caps"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin_mushroom): a psilocybin, or psychedelic, mushroom, i.e. a type of hallucinogen  
> [Ivies:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedera_helix) just common climbing ivy, also known as English ivy. I looked for Asian ivies but they were all poisonous and skin irritants - not suitable for climbing children!  
> [Foxfire:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxfire) also known as "fairy fire"; it's a type of bioluminescent fungi that grows in decaying wood
> 
> I will eventually get around to updating the series' description, but 3AM on a Thursday is not the time to do that.  
> So for now I'll just leave the basics here:  
> \- I'm in a horticulture technician program. I'm willfully and eagerly obsessing over plants; I need to apply this information to something I'm equally obsessed with, i.e. The Legend of Zelda series lol  
> \- I'm also mildly obsessed with developmental disorders like my own ADHD, my brother's and several friends' autism, and the fascinatingly different ways they affect each of us.  
> \- Last but not least, a small obsession with music, music theory, practice, and in this case, how that all has to do with LoZ. So beware: ridiculous ruminations on Ocarina of Time's soundtrack coming your way.
> 
> Anyway thanks for coming to my TED talk about my ADHD brain's current hyperfocus project. I'm masochistic and want to do a ficlet for every important scene in the game. Do you have any idea how many research papers I have this term? The medicinal history and current uses of Mandrake is due February 28 lol
> 
> PS: I accidentally made myself sad with that last line. And then I laughed somewhat evilly and ran with it :D


	2. I.c. - The Tree - The Emerald

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“I have been cursed... I need you to break the curse with your wisdom and courage. Dost thou have courage enough to undertake this task?”_  
>  ➜ _Yes_  
>  _No_
> 
> Wisdom and courage. Not power? Link is young yet; he hasn’t much power, so wisdom and courage will be his tools today.

He walks slowly inside, the purpose in his steps suddenly bogged down by trepidation.

Inside the Deku Tree is eerie. Cavernous. Eerie for the soft, woodwind ambience of air through crevices, of branches settling, of water flowing, all transforming into music that echoes within this wide, spacious atrium. It puts a crick in Link’s neck trying to see the ceiling. There are clear signs of distress in the guardian tree: massive, sprawling webs spread like a canopy high above, and one stretches over an ominous hole in the ground. He’s seen trees hollowed out yet full of life, and the Great Deku Tree is _ancient_ , so it’s not so surprising he’d have lost some heartwood over the years. He doesn’t know why the sight of that hole fills him with dread. Perhaps because the Great Deku Tree mentioned a curse...

Link tries not to think too hard about that.

Navi is an unfamiliar presence, flitting about nervously and spouting lots of advice, some of it even helpful. He knows he can climb up the ivies, thank you; he does it all the time. But then there’s this weird barrier she calls a door—made of a material colder than the stone and the heartwood around it, like those bars in the Sacred Meadow—that slides up when he touches a hand to its center. What is it doing inside a tree?

He finds a slingshot and lets out a hum of delight. Wait until Mido sees this! He’ll have kittens! The leather-wrapped handle fits his hand like it was made for him. He practices on some Skulltulas before moving on.

He takes grim pleasure in burning away as many webs as he can reach.

And then... He’s never jumped from this high before. Navi seems doubtful as well, but jumping from the midway height had only led to him bouncing on the stretchy web. He feels sick to his stomach and his hands are trembling.

Nothing to it. He’ll just...pretend he’s jumping into the pools in the Sacred Meadow.

Yeah.

He puts on a brave face and runs.

The fall is _a lot_ longer than he anticipated. His heart is in his throat and his stomach is somewhere near his ears and he crashes through the web with a scream and _keeps_ ** _falling_** and barely manages to suck some air into his lungs before he smacks painfully into the water at the bottom. Thank the Goddesses there even _was_ water at the bottom. He didn’t even think about what he’d be landing on. So much for wisdom and courage; that was _stupid_.

Link drags himself out of the water, ignoring the angrily snapping Deku Baba nearby to cough and sputter and breathe through the fire-bright stinging ache of the _worst_ belly flop in history. He’s gonna be feeling that _forever_.

There are even more webs down here. They’re too big to be from any Skulltula. Those weird pink egg things, and the weird, chirping, two-legged bug things that come out of them... Navi calls them Gohma Larvae, and if the larvae are the same size as Link, then... He hopes he won’t meet whatever laid those eggs, but the deeper into the tree he goes, the more likely it seems he will. They must be a part of the curse the Great Deku Tree told him about. If he defeats the mother, could that break the curse?

Feeling motivated, Link presses on. There’s a strange hole on either side of this space, blocked off by metal bars like those before the maze in the Sacred Meadow. Connecting these holes is the river Link fell in. Through another door is a clanking, turning rod covered in spikes over another channel of water and Link realizes the Great Deku Tree must have been planted over some underground water source. So at least these holes aren’t new, aren’t damage caused by the mother of those bugs.

He burns more webs, and the next drop is only slightly easier; it’s shorter and he could see the water below, this time, but _ye-_ ** _ouch_** that hurts. He tricks the cute Mad Scrubs into letting him by, but they mention something about “Queenie” and Link _knows_ the mother lies behind that door.

He collects a few hearts from the water, letting their warm magic soothe his own. The echoing sounds are even louder this deep in the ground, but rather than feeling foreboding, the music of the earth and the great guardian soothe him just as much as the hearts do. He only needs a moment to collect his nerve before passing through the door.

And here is the Great Deku Tree’s root system: unfathomably large roots have made an open cavern this deep in the earth, but something about it seems wrong. There's an ominous rustling and clicking noise above Link, and when he looks, Navi’s light reveals only a fraction of the damage the curse has wrought on the tree’s structure. The roots stretch and reach and crisscross high above, and wound tight in and around them is the thickest web Link has ever seen. There's a red glow coming from above, maybe the sun leaking through the weakened bark, maybe an effect of the curse. Everywhere he looks the roots are fractured and eaten and turning black in the few places Navi’s light reaches.

Cautiously, Link makes his way further into the chamber. The clacking hasn't paused once since Link entered the room, and it has to be whatever created those webs. The thought makes him angry. Furious. He prepares his slingshot. But when he finally spots it, the sight of the creature’s great red eye paralyzes him with fear.

The thing drops before him, rearing up in a blatant threat display while Navi shouts at him, “That’s the queen Gohma! She's one of the parasitic monsters inside the Deku Tree!”

Link panics and misses his shot. The armoured arachnid lashes out at him, barely missing before scittering away and up a pillar to crawl in the darkness of the ceiling. Link can only see her because Navi bravely follows, casting her light about the monster. Link aims a shot and fires. Fires again. _Fires again!_

The queen ducks her head and Link lets out a high-pitched noise when she starts laying, no, _firing_ out eggs. They crack against the ground, hatching furiously and zeroing in on Link. Thankfully he’s gotten the hang of these things; when he finishes them off he fires again at the Gohma above.

It hits! Link dashes over to flail his sword wildly at her eye. She gets up and knocks him over; the dirt ground scrapes against his skin, almost burning him. He halts her climb up the wall with another Deku Nut, and this time he doesn’t hesitate.

She roars and rears up in her death throes, nearly knocking Link over again. To his surprise, instead of collapsing, the great creature erupts into green flames and burns away entirely. Right: a curse, the Great Deku Tree said.

A curse! He killed the parasite! He must have broken the curse! He did it!

In Queen Gohma’s place is a large, glowing gem, the same shape as the hearts, but bigger, more crystalline. Link picks it up, curious, and feels the magic spread through him like a great rush of energy. He feels great. Bruised, but proud. He killed the monstrous parasite infesting the Great Deku Tree’s roots!

A bright blue light unfurls in the centre of the cavern. A pure, singing note warbles from the circle. He approaches, enchanted, and the light blooms around him, lifting him into the air and almost blinding him with its bright magic.

Something shifts, and when Link opens his eyes again, he lands lightly on his feet before the Great Deku Tree. He grins up at him, eager and feeling _so_ accomplished.

“Well done, Link...” the tree says. “Thou hast verily demonstrated thy courage...” Link positively beams at the praise, breathing heavily as his heart rate slowly calms down. “I knew that thou wouldst be able to carry out my wishes...”

But it strikes Link now how slowly, how wearily the guardian tree’s words carry. As Link listens to the guardian’s tale, imagining this wicked man from the desert, that nightmare flashes in his mind: a great tall man on a big black beast, casting a dark curse at Link. He imagines that imposing figure in this meadow, cursing the father of the Kokiri, and it’s all Link can do to stand there patiently as the Great Deku Tree continues his tale. It’s the tale of the Golden Goddesses that the Kokiri know by rote, but it feels different this time. The guardian’s magic suffuses him, drawing visions to mind: the creation of the world, the Goddesses and their designations, the creation of the Triforce. The information itself isn’t new, but rather a new understanding that the legend is based in truth. The legend is true enough that the Great Deku Tree is warning Link of the threat this man from the desert poses in his search for the Triforce. True enough that...

It’s not fair.

“Though your valiant efforts to break the curse were successful,” the Deku Tree continues, and Link doesn’t want to hear it, but he can’t just turn off his ears, and it’s not _fair_ , “I was doomed before you started...”

_It’s not_ ** _fair_**.

And Link knew, he _knew_ this; he could tell this for himself when he first set foot inside the Great Deku Tree; he just didn’t want to acknowledge it, didn’t want to _think_ about it.

“But do not grieve for me...” the tree continues softly, surely aware of how impossible this task is. “I have been able to tell you of these important matters... This is Hyrule's final hope...”

His eyes sting. His chest hurts. He knew, but—but there’s _no way_ this can be true. There must be something Link can do!

“Link... Go now to Hyrule Castle...” What? Go where? What is that?

“There, thou will surely meet the Princess of Destiny...” Who? 

“Take this stone with you. The stone that man wanted so much, that he cast the curse on me...”

The air thickens with tension and Link’s breath hitches. Stone? What stone? Can’t the man have picked up any old stone from the ground? Why did he have to _kill_ —

The tension snaps with a sharp burst of light. Above Link floats a lazily spinning object of gold and green. Instinctively, Link raises his arms to catch it as it descends, surprised when the stone hovers above his palms, still spinning slowly. The gold wraps around the green stone in a swirl to mimic a stylized leaf. It’s clearly a magical object, floating as it is. Link doesn’t know what to do with it, and the Great Deku Tree is speaking again, so he grabs it from the air and slips it unceremoniously into a pouch on his belt. The stone feels physical but not, almost like it’s not really there, like it’s half somewhere else.

“The future depends on thee, Link...” he’s saying, and Link’s breath stutters uselessly over the pulse in his throat because this is a goodbye he can’t come back to, a final goodbye with no see-you-tomorrow in sight. “Thou art courageous...

“Navi the fairy... Help Link to carry out my will... I entreat ye... Navi...

“Good...bye...”

And Link had known, of course he’d known, but he’d denied it so desperately it still comes as a shock. With those final words, the Great Deku Tree takes his last breaths, life and magic fading away, slowly and quickly and all at once. The magic that must have been concealing the outward signs of necrosis, all of the decay—the façade fades away with the magic, happening so swiftly it looks almost like he’s suddenly and rapidly changing, withering, _dying_.

In mere moments, the Great Deku Tree is gone. Just like that. The silence that screams in the meadow scares Link and Link can’t handle it.

He can’t.

So he runs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Great Deku Tree” — The dungeon title calls it “Inside the Deku Tree” and everywhere he’s simply called the Deku Tree, however, the Kokiri all refer to him as the Great Deku Tree, and I think Link would too. So.
> 
> “Hollow trees” — [This article](https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2017/08/ancient-hollow-trees/) explains it better than I can; I was more concerned with _climbing_ trees last term! But basically, the heartwood of a tree is mostly used structurally; all the nutrients and water a tree uses goes through the sapwood, so being hollow doesn't necessarily harm it. It depends on what has _caused_ the hollowness. In the case of the Deku Tree, it's a combination of natural causes and parasitic damage.
> 
> “Sacred Meadow” — Listen. I know it’s called the Sacred Grove in OoT and the Sacred Meadow in TP, but I’m going to pretend it’s Sacred Meadow in OoT as well. Because. It’s not a grove. It’s a meadow. A grove is a small forest, and a meadow is an area of low-lying vegetation, especially near a river.
> 
> “Goddesses” — I spent a while debating on “Goddesses” vs. “goddesses” and finally decided capitalizing it was appropriate. You can refer to [this link](https://www.thoughtco.com/god-or-god-to-capitalize-or-not-to-capitalize-249823) for more information, but basically they’re The Goddesses, whereas Hylia is a goddess. 
> 
> “[By rote](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_learning)” — a phrase that came to me while writing, of which I didn't fully understand the meaning. So, being me, I looked it up. Learning things by rote, by repetition, is how they teach you your times tables. As opposed to learning things [meaningfully](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaningful_learning), where you fully understand what you're learning and are able to make connections to other things. Kind of like how I knew the phrase “by rote” because I'd heard it used before, but now I know what it means and I can make that connection to mathematics~
> 
> So, the Kokiri know the creation myth by rote, meaning they don't know what it means in the greater scheme of things; it's just another story to them, albeit an important one. Like, a kid who parrots their parent’s beliefs with full confidence and belief, without knowing what those beliefs mean, their parent is Everything, so they just Believe. (That's why Catholicism has the Sacrament of Confirmation, which I've done, and have since rescinded lol) Link doesn't understand either, but he's aware now that the Triforce is real and that the man who killed his guardian wants it desperately.
> 
> (Speaking of creation myths, here's a lovely word for you: [cosmogonical](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth)! A common type of creation myth that, like Hyrule’s, describes “the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness”, to quote Wikipedia. Neat, eh?)
> 
> And you thought all my notes were gonna be plant-based! ...well so did I, but I can't say I'm surprised this is where my ADHD has taken me. I actually wrote this chapter months ago, but only got around to finishing and editing it recently. You can thank my friend middlethought for that, for sitting me down to watch this _absolutely_ fantastic Ocarina of Time essay, "[OCARINA OF TIME - A Masterclass In Subtext](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyUcwsjyd8Q&t=1s)". Please go check it out! Its beautifully produced and presented, and its theses are compelling.


End file.
